Wednesday, November 4, 2015

How to Get Everything Done

Sometimes it feels like whatever I do and however hard I try, I get nothing done.

The day passes by without accomplishing anything.

Then there are days like today, when I get everything done!

The difference doesn't come down to whether or not I have a plan for the day (though that helps), but whether I work the plan.

It's a waste of time to make a plan and then not do the things on it.

For those who want to peek into my process, here's my daily plan.

I'll talk about the marked areas in detail, complete with tips for using your planner.

TIP: Highlight things as you complete them and other stuff, still to be done, will pop out at you.
A) Note that A is highlighted.TIP: Write "CANCEL" over thing that are cancelled if you need to make a record.

I included a schedule with the time sensitive stuff. A sick kid meant Mass got cancelled, so I wrote CANCEL over Mass.

TIP: Use an arrow to show moved items, tasks, or appointments.

B) When Mass got cancelled, I needed to move "envelope" to the next week, so I can bring it to Church with me then. So I drew an arrow over it, copied it on next Sunday, and then highlighted it.

TIP: Have a consistent way to label planner pages.

C) I label planner pages in the top right corner. The consistency means I know just where to look to see what a page is about and where to put it in my planner. (I do the same for files.)

TIP: Your plan can change whenever it needs to, as long as you keep working it.

D) I realized that I needed to use some ground beef from the freezer (um, because the freezer was so full that it wouldn't close properly), so I added spaghetti to the lunch plans.

E) I added "meds refill" to my list late, too.

TIP: An "in progress" square around a task that is started but not complete lets you show you've accomplished something, but have more to do.

F) I put a square around the laundry task after I started the laundry, but I won't highlight until the laundry is put away.

TIP: Circle repeating tasks.
G) Once I took my morning meds, I rewrote taking them on tomorrow's plan.

K) I check Philofaxy every Saturday, so that reminder moves from week to week.Etcetera.If you enjoy what you read at Giftie Etcetera, please share on social media. Click here to join the Giftie Etcetera Facebook group.

10 comments:

Great tips! I do keep a daily planner for my blog like scheduling post, link parties, FB groups, etc. but for things around the house I write things I need to do on a list then mark off when completed.

Every time I visit your blog, I think "Hmm...I really should get a real live paper planner." Then I don't. But after reading this well thought out explanation...man! I need a real live paper planner!! I think I might put it on my Christmas list. I'm sure you have suggestions of good ones! I will have to poke around a bit and find them.

Thank you for the great ideas on how to keep the plan going! I am just starting to really activate my blog and etsy store and with 4 kids sometimes i feel like the other things get left go like...the cleaning.

I like the idea of using a highlighter and I love the canceled idea too!